The program he helped destroy is also starting to get what it deserves. Nobody should have problem with that, either.

Penn State has turned into a success story unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The Nittany Lions were left for dead after starting 0-2. Now they’ve won four in a row, capped by a 39-28 win over No. 24 Northwestern this past Saturday.

Penn State even got a vote in the AP Top 25. It marks the first time in a year that the terms “Penn State” and “vote” did not appear in the same sentence as “guilty verdict.”

“There is no quit in this locker room,” coach Bill O’Brien said after the Nittany Lions outscored Northwestern, 22-0, in the fourth quarter.

Not over your indignation over Sandusky and all the guilty parties. It’s just time to separate what was from what is.

“We’re 4-2,” O’Brien said. “Who knows where we’re going to end up?”

Big Ten champs, Probation Division?

Penn State players could have quit long before they were down 11 points in the fourth quarter to Northwestern. Only nine players transferred after the NCAA sanctions came down. You can’t blame them, but you have to admire all those who kept their commitments. They basically signed on to redeeming Pariah State.

That will never full happen, since all the punishment in the world won’t mollify critics. Never mind the $60 million fine, severe scholarship reductions, erasing every win since 1998, a postseason ban until 2016 and worldwide disgust.

Penn State didn’t get the death penalty, but it is Dead Program Walking. The NCAA had never punished a school based solely on criminal activity. If you say Penn State’s criminal activity warranted it, fine. But a basketball player murdered a teammate during Baylor’s scandalous run a decade ago, and the NCAA didn’t break precedent.

It didn’t matter than Penn State had already fired its coach, president and everybody else responsible was under indictment. Justice would not be served until ever Penn State fan traded in their sweatshirts for sackcloth and ashes.

It didn’t matter that 99.999 percent of them had nothing to do with the scandal, and were suitably abhorred by it. Or that 100 percent of today’s players and coaches weren’t around when Joe Paterno was looking the other way.

When it comes to NCAA justice, the innocent always get hammered. The problem here is that their pain and suffering will always be measured against what Sandusky’s victims have endured.

There is no comparison, of course. But there should be room for a little understanding, if not sympathy.

“No one pays attention to that,” linebacker Michael Mauti said of Tuesday’s sentencing. “It has nothing to do with us.”

After being convicted on 45 counts of sexual abuse, the 68-year-old Sandusky will undoubtedly spend the rest of his life in prison. He would be 98 when his earliest release date comes in 2042.

Here’s hoping he doesn’t handle his sentence nearly as well as the Nittany Lions are handling theirs. Beaver Stadium wasn’t sold out for the homecoming game, but Penn State still trails only Ohio State, Michigan and Alabama in attendance this season.

Would no Saturday football games have made life any more miserable for Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz? Those names will mar Penn State for decades, but it’s time to learn some new ones.

Like everybody else on the team, they could now be wearing USC or Kansas State or Rutgers uniforms. But they want to be a part of the new Penn State. O’Brien is so appreciative, he’s putting players’ names on the back of the jerseys.

He knows challenges. O’Brien’s 10-year-old son, Jack, has a rare brain disease. He is confined to a wheelchair and can’t speak. It’s safe to say his dad might not just notify the boss if he heard a boy was being molested in the shower.

Some people will never forgive Penn State. But the monster is being thrown into the dungeon forever on Tuesday.

He made it impossible to cheer for the Nittany Lions. Now the new guys are making them hard to cheer against.